Regrets
by AlexaNDYE
Summary: Pepper meets Tony back at the Stark Tower and confesses some regrets. WARNING: AVENGERS SPOILERS! Do not read if you don't want to be spoiled silly!


**A/N: So, after seeing the Avengers movie (and watching it numerous times on my laptop) i had way too many Pepperony ideas zipping through my mind. I had to write this before i went all crazy. My friends went to the midnight showing with me and they would not hear the end of it. All i said to them after the movie: "Robert is so adorable" "Ahhhh Pepper and Tony are so cuuuute together!" "Omg... Robert's ass... Dat ass...".**

**Disclaimer: Robert Downey Jr. You beautiful, adorable, wonderful man, you. I want to give you a big hug. All of the Pepperony shippers want to hug you to death. I don't own anything.**

**Enjoy!**

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The elevator could not have been moving any slower. Some of her hair was tied up and some it was gently laid along her shoulders. Her eyes were particularly strained. She had been looking at a television screen for the past few hours; the news of the destruction on New York made her a little on edge. She smoothed out her pink blouse in attempts to keep herself under control.

_Why am I so stupid?_ She asked herself. The elevator pinged against her ears. In anxiousness, she tilted her head up and saw a big number '9' in red lights. Tony's loft was on floor 48, yet it felt like the elevator was purposefully taunting her. She heavily sighed to herself and thought, _Even the elevator thinks I'm stupid._

Her reasons for such thoughts were very justified. When she had landed in D.C, she immediately looked down at her phone to see what time it was. In the corner of her phone was a little exclamation mark. The only reason it would be there is if she had a missed call. She curiously tapped on the corner of her smart phone and saw Tony's face, quipped with a charming smile, right under the words 'RECENTLY MISSED CALL'.

She thought back to herself and noticed the time stamp. During the midst of her concentrated news viewing, she had left her phone by its lonesome. Her mouth gapped as she thought back to the time stamp and concentrated on its whereabouts in her activities. When the memories of watching New York City being destroyed and news of Iron Man redirecting a missile out of harms way flooded her mind, she immediately caught her breath. For the longest time, she could hardly breathe. She placed a hand on her heart and stared down at her phone's screen; Tony's picture faded to black as her phone was automatically went to sleep.

She immediately tapped her phone back on and tapped on Tony's face, making her phone automatically jump to calling him. Pepper anxiously tapped her foot against the tarmac. She knows he's still alive, according to the news, but the fact that he tried to call her during the battle almost made her cry. When Tony didn't pick up, she immediately got back on the plane.

She leaned against the side of the elevator's carpet padded walls and put her hand against her chest again. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest just as the task of breathing became difficult.

Pepper anxiously looked at the elevator's current floor number again and saw a big number '33' in red lights. Before she entered the building, Tony called her back. She asked him where he was, and he simply told her, with a hint of delight in his voice, "I'm at the Stark Tower." When she told him that she would be up there in a second, he simply responded 'okay', and hung up.

A single tear ran down her cheek. Of course, she was happy that he was alive and well, but – Tony never called her during hideous battles of destruction and madness; the only moments when he would think to ever call her during a chaotic battle would be if he was in a near-death experience. Her heart ached cried out in pain when thoughts of losing Tony collided with the memory of mistakenly leaving her phone on vibrate.

The elevator abruptly stopped in its tracks, forcing Pepper to pry her eyes open. When the elevator doors opened, she immediately looked towards the bright rays from the sun that cascaded through the loft. She saw a soft outline of what looked like Tony's figure. He was in a thin black t-shirt and black pair of slacks; his RT visibly glowed through.

When he heard the elevator ding behind him, he quickly looked over his shoulder and grinned. "Hi." He greeted her, finally turning around.

Pepper slowly walked out of the elevator and stared at him for the longest time. _Months ago, you scolded him for not telling you that he was dying. Now, he tried to call you during, what might have been, his last breathing moments, and you didn't pick up. YOU DIDN'T PICK UP!_ She mentally yelled at herself.

"Tony…" She breathed, feeling her throat close up. She slowly walked towards him; her eyes couldn't seem to tear themselves away from his wide grin. _You're so stupid, Virginia. You didn't answer his call._ She scolded herself over and over.

When the distance between them got smaller, Tony quickly wrapped his arms around her middle, giving her a heartfelt embrace. Pepper closed her eyes in sorrow and wrapped her arms around his neck. She pressed her cheek against his and let the tears flow from her eyes. When he felt her tears against his cheek, he broke away in confusion.

"What's wrong, are you okay?" He quietly asked her, staring at her.

Pepper took in a deep breath, almost unable to keep up with the floods of thoughts that ran through her head. "Your eye." She simply replied.

He continued to stare at her in worry. "It's just a cut. I'll be fine." He waved off her concerns. "What's wrong?" He asked her once more.

She shook her head as a deep frown took over. "I'm sorry." She gasped.

Tony furrowed his eyebrows at her. "Why are you apologizing?" He was taken aback by her sudden words.

"I didn't answer your call." She told him with a slight calmness in her voice.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "That's why you're apologizing?" He jokingly thought she killed his imaginary fish or something.

"I'm sorry. I was watching the news and my phone was on vibrate. I didn't think—I didn't know—I just—You were—" She couldn't think of the words to express her crumbling emotions. _And you thought Tony was going to be the one to screw things up the relationship…_ She mentally reprimanded herself.

"Pepper – Pepper, stop." He moved his hands to grip her shoulders. "You're not making any sense."

It took her a few moments to catch her breath and calm herself down. The worse part was, was that she was unable to even look at him. Every single time she caught a glimpse of his face, her emotions would start to run wild. "You tried to call me during all that chaos, and the only time you'd do that if it was really important… and I didn't answer."

Tony looked down at her with a solemn look and pressed his lips together. It hurt him as well – seeing the words 'CALL FAILED' flash across his HUD right as he stopped breathing. When he saw another tear run down her cheek, he quickly reassembled his thoughts. "Pepper."

She didn't respond.

"Hey, Pepper." He softly spoke. "Look at me."

With the help of Tony's index finger under her chin, her head slowly tilted up. He looked at those beautiful ocean blue eyes and then noticed the effects of her weeping. Her eyes were a tad red and puffy. The only time he could remember when he last saw her like that was when he just got back from Afghanistan.

"I'm here. I'm alive. There's nothing to be sorry about."

"You—You could've died." She breathed, barely. "You could've died and I didn't answer."

"That's in the past." He tried to calm her down. "The past is the past, and you know how much I hate History; I'm more about the future. I'm alive, and everything is fine. That's all that matters."

"Tony, it doesn't work like that." She pleaded. "I can't get the thought of leaving you to die like that—"

"But you didn't, Pepper." He felt her hands at his sides. "I'm here," he tried to smile. "With you." He grabbed on her hands and pressed it against his RT. "See?"

She shook her head in disbelief. "I'm sorry."

He slowly took her in and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She wrapped hers around his waist and tightened her hold, as if she were afraid to ever let go. He rubbed her shoulder with his hand in efforts to calm her down. His heart crumbled against his chest when he heard her soft sniffles against his neck.

"If you had picked up…" He started out. Pepper pulled away to look up at him; her red eyes made his throat close up. "…What would you have said?"

She breathed a laugh and sniffed again. She thought about it for a moment while Tony's eyes burned holes in her face. She flashed a grin, "I would've told you how much work you had waiting for you. I would've showed you the stack of paper work that needed your signatures. And then I would've told you how twelve percent of me hated the plane ride to D.C."

Tony chuckled at her last sentence. He watched her genuine words effortlessly build up into one solemn expression that flashed across her face. She began to play with the hem of his t-shirt in efforts to busy herself, unbeknownst if her next few words were going to make her throw herself in a deep hole.

"And then I'd tell you how much I love you." Her lips formed a simple smile. Tony stared down at her, still trying to register what she had just said. "And how much I miss you, and how proud I am of you." Her eyes started to water up as her heart shattered into a thousand warm beating hearts.

His mouth gapped in surprise. "Pepper…"

"The thought of not being able to tell you everything I just said before you died tore me apart." She slipped back into regret. "And I can't forgive myself for doing that to you."

"Stop." He felt his throat close up again. "Don't beat yourself up for something like this?"

"Why shouldn't I?" She shook her head in disbelief. "You risked your life for this City, and in your last moments, you tried to call me. I didn't pick up, and I—" She stopped short, still trying to gather her thoughts. "—For the longest time, I thought you were the one that was going to royally screw up first in this relationship."

"As much as I concur with you on that last statement, it doesn't matter if you would've answered or if I had never called you in the first place." He tried to tell her as his words peaked her interest "I still would've had the same motivation to survive."

Pepper's mouth gapped. Every single one of his words hit her heart in the right spots. Warmth spread through her as the next few words escaped his lips. "It's always been you."

She breathed a laugh and grinned.

"There's no way a nuclear missile and a portal to another realm was going to keep me from seeing your freckles again." His nose touched hers in the most intimate gesture, making her smile wildly. "I love you, Pepper."

He slowly closed the gap between them and pressed a soft kiss against her lips. He felt her hands roam against his lower back as a familiar warmth took over their throats. Eager for his affection, she kissed him back as softly as she could. She almost lost him, and the only thing keeping her grounded was the still growing affection they had for each other.

When they broke apart, she still couldn't find the strength to let him go. Her hands found the sides of his shirt and immediately began playing with the hem.

"Before your very distracting presence bestowed itself, I was going over some plans with JARVIS about remodeling this place." He informed her.

Pepper furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her surroundings. Glass was scattered across the flat, along with debris and chunks of concrete. Her eyes gazed upon a crater that looked a lot like a human impression. "What—"

"Banner's best friend had some fun with Loki." He told her.

"And we _just_ put the finishing touches on this building, too." She almost pouted, still looking around at the mess.

"But, this gives us a_ huge_ opportunity to remodel the place to our absolute liking." He grinned and grabbed her hand, leading her to one of the holographic tables. A 3-D layout of the Stark Tower was presented to her.

"What do you think?" He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. She stood next to him and wrapped one of her arms around her middle and grinned at the layout.

"It doesn't look like you changed anything."

"Exactly." He beamed. "I want your input first."

Pepper looked down at the layout and instantly grinned. She swiped her hand across the holograph and removed the top half of the building. He tilted his head to the side in consideration and smiled. He rubbed her shoulder and leaned in for a kiss; his lips softly pressed against hers for a quick second. They basked in each other's presence, looking out at the beautiful view in front of them. They had a lot of remodeling to do.

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**A/N: Reviews make fanfic babies! :)**


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